Wow. What a trip. Friday morning, I wake up at 4:00am. Groggy but excited to be seeing the Rocket city museum and as icing on this exploratory cake, I get to meet Hal and Rose. So I take a hot shower and get ready. At around 4:45, I am out of the house, on the way to Huntsville. All the directions from my website searches gave me 4:00 hours to get there. So I figured, since the museum opened at 9:00 central, I would get there at 8:00 central leaving me good time to get around in case I got lost. The trip went flawlessly and in defiance of all physics, I reached there in 2.5 hours. I wonder where those websites get their directions from... So I had ample time to roam about the streets of huntsville and even get a relaxing breakfast with the graces of the King of the Burger. Comes 9:00 am and I find myself at the entrance to the museum and I see Hal and Rose walking up towards me. We had a good time discussing running and the Chicago marathon. The museum trip was wonderful.. lots of nice and interesting NASA and space-related items and events to look back on. The only thing I would have wished differently was this. I figured, hey, it is a week-day, and there won't be many people around. As luck would have it however, the museum was invaded by little creatures, descending from their orange carriers. The few adults responsible for controlling them were, to make an understatement were hopelessly overwhelmed. I tell you, there were times that I wished I were in fact, on the moon. The joys of childhood. In the evening, I visited the race expo and spent some time bugging Hal and Rose again at the v-team booth. The expo was tiny (compared to Chicago) and very crowded since there was not enough room for the runners and their family and other miscellaneous un-related folks who were taking up space, like myself. But the excitement was the same. I could smell the sense of adventure and adrenaline in the air. At 7:30 in the evening, I attended the clinic where the guest speaker was Hal. He gave a very nice and pithy talk on his running adventures as well as the things he had learnt from his experiences. The Q&A session was very interesting... I could in fact see myself reading the questions being asked on the v- board. It was eerie. The best question of the evening in my view (and I paraphrase): << Hal, I have been following your schedule and thus, tapering for the past three weeks... will I be ready to run the race after the taper?? >> Well... need I say more? I loved Hal's light- hearted and satirical response to the lady << You are toast.>> He did of course, immediately tell the lady that she would do fine and the taper was there for a reason. There was also this guy who was running 78 marathons this year and was consequently in a rush to get them in before December end. So he was running Rocket city on Saturday and then flying to Hawaii to run another marathon on Sunday. Is he nuts?? no, he is just a runner. The next morning, I missed the start of the race since I overslept and woke up in time to realise the streets would be closed and I would not get to the start point in time. So I wisely compromised with myself and slept in even more. I woke up, did the morning actions thrust upon humanity by society and drove over to the Hilton. I found myself eating breakfast there.. pancakes and eggs and milk and the ubiquitous hash browns. I did manage to avoid the grits extravaganza luckily. I was just about done and waiting in vain for the waitress to bring me the bill but she was in no hurry. I looked up from my watch to see Rose and I got graciously invited to their table for a little tea. Finally my waitress floats over to the table and lays the bill down on. I pay it in a very precipitous manner and walk over to Hal and Rose's table. I enjoyed the tea and fine conversation. We talked about the v-board.. about Michelle's knee saga and how Suku was the quiet type. Hal said something which stuck in my head.. he said "Suku talks with his legs". How true. For Suku and for us all v-boarders. After breakfast, Hal and I walk over to the finish line in time to see the first and second place runners come in. Hal then went back to the room saying that he wanted to come back later to see the "real runners" come in. The first place time was 2:21 something... impressive. I was in awe. The guy wasn't even tired. Oh well. I did need inspiration. I also saw a nice lady I met at the bar the previous night who was trying for a sub-3 hour PR come in at 2:54ish. Talk about a PR!! 6 + minutes. Wow. More inspiration. I then took some pictures at the finish line and started to walk away it. Maybe a mile. It was so nice to see the runners from a perspective of a spectator who has run a marathon and know to an extent what they were going through at mile 25. I was cheering them on and getting misty eyed when I saw the struggles some of them were going through. I felt like running out there and giving every runner a big hug. But then the cops might not have taken it kindly. So I started to walk back to the hotel and start my drive back to Atlanta around 12:30. I've posted some Huntsville finish line pictures (thanks to the Huntsville Marathon website). Click on PHOTOS on the menu on top to see them! -- Richie BAKSHI